Warmest day in quite a while, it was in the high 60s in the late afternoon though quite breezy with gusty winds bringing a bit of wind chill factor.
Started walking from my campsite at 9:02 AM and would be standing at the top of the highest point of Picacho Peak 40 minutes later. Yes, several stops to catch my breath were made on the way up!
Near the start of the trail up, you can just see what I called the
gateway rock formations upper center.
The gateway rock formations, things would get much rockier
and steeper once I was past them.
Minimal marking of the trail from the above picture upwards, lost the trail a couple of times but managed to find it soon enough. There's actually several trails, I guess made by past hikers, which tends to confuse things in the right lighting.
Still, made it to the top with no issues besides having to stop a time or three to catch my breath and wait for my heart to stop trying to leave my chest.
So can you spot Uma and the campsite?
Here's a zoomed in view, at max optical zoom
360 degree pano shot
The following were taken as I made my way back down:
You have to watch your step, lots of ankle-turning rocks on the trail
Someone left behind a mini-Stonehenge trailside
Getting closer to the gateway rock formation
On top of the gateway rocks
Looking down at the remaining trail from the top of the gateway rocks
One last look at the gateway rocks
I just liked the way the light was bringing out
the colors of these rocks.
Made it back to the campsite shortly before Noon and had a light lunch while resting from the hike, even had me a tiny little nap.
Waking from the nap, I then drove out on Mariko to do some more light four-wheeling, down trails already explored and branching off to see others. No steep hills this time, kept it really light duty.
Some steep trails probably popular with the UTV crowd
Mariko and I did not try them.
Picacho Peak
Looking at Las Cruces and the Desert Peaks
Picacho Peak from near Box Canyon Road
I returned to camp and just relaxed in the warm-ish late afternoon, the strong breeze was still around and I just listened to podcasts to wind down the day.
A good day of hiking and four-wheeling, tomorrow isn't supposed to be as warm as today but it should be warm enough if the winds die down.
4 comments:
Nice portrait of yourself, Dom. You look happy.
The camera zoom is amazing. Such detail!
The Las Cruces area looks pretty nice. It’ll be nice once NM relaxes their rules.
Thanks SonjaM! I like the zoom on the camera but a tripod is a definite most at that resolution.
It's not a bad spot for spending some time, it'll definitely be much better once they open up the tourist stuff again.
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